Cleaning your wet/dry filter

[coral beauty]

How often would you reccomend that one needs to clean the wet/dry filter?The sponge,and all of the gunk that is trapped underneath the tray where the bioballs are?I have occasionally cleaned the sponge out under water but I have never cleaned the bottom of the sump out,is that something that I should be doing?

 

[almarktool]

really should not need cleaning do u have a prefilter before your bio balls somewhere? u might need to change that or clean it more often, from what i was told the sponge after the balls should never be touched since the house's all your denitrifying bacteria and if u do rinse it out make sure it is down in saltwater

 

[coral beauty]

Yes I have 2 foam tubes that are in my overflow box where my siphon tubes go into.I rinse those out every once in a while.There is also a filter pad on top of the tray where the water runs into the filter.I was just wondering about thefins silt looking stuff thats in the bottom of the sump.I didnt know if that needed to be removed or not.Thanks

 

[almarktool]

well,
i would keep those prefilters in the overflow box clean as well as the one for the sump as far as cleaning the sump i would prob be inclined to take the denitry sponge out put it in saltwater and wipe out the sump with clean towels, rags perhaps once a year then put the sponge back in if u are using bio ball make sure they stay wet perhaps have someone take and sprinkle water (salt) over them with a watering can (new) while u are wiping out the sump